[To the tune of the Spongebob Squarepants theme song]
Are ya ready kids?
Aye Aye, Captain!
I can't hear you!
Aye Aye, Captain!
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,
What asks about pineapples talking with hares?
Dumbed-Down, State Tests!
Inscrutable questions pulled out of thin air?
Dumbed-Down State Tests!
This talking fruit nonsense be somethin’ to see
Dumbed-Down State Tests!
Just pick up a pencil and bubble in “B”
Dumbed-Down State Tests!
Dumbed-Down State Tests!
Dumbed-Down State Tesssssssssssts!
Argh, argh, argh, argh, argh!

5:53 pm April 20, 2012

Anonymous wrote:

let me explain the story in wsj terms. Wall street folks (the pineapple) think they are capable doing something useful, and challenges the main street folks (the hare) to a test. The government (the crow) believe the pineapple can pull it off since it believes the trickle down thing. The short seller (the moose) obviously see the train wreck coming. The crow then switched side to Regulate! Regulate!. Then main street beats the wall street for usefulness. And being a fairy tale, the pine is eaten.

6:09 pm April 20, 2012

Katy wrote:

Good for Pinkwater. He has accurately described testing companies- they are pretty shady a lot of the time.

6:37 pm April 20, 2012

patrick sullivan wrote:

Education "reformers" who champion accoountability based on this nonsense should adopt the talking pineapple as their mascot. But they must not let Michelle Rhee tape its mouth shut.

New York State tests might just be the death of us all.
Not only the passages are...ridiculous, but the direction are. For example, my teacher was reading from his directions booklet and it actually read: "Are there any questions on how to DARKEN the CIRCLES?"
My class was already taken aback before we started the nonsensical test.

3:33 am April 23, 2012

DeanSoCal wrote:

Well, not sure that this is any worse than the reading comprehension passages on the LSAT.

State are collecting tons of data on your child. They are NOT paying you for it. One button push by a dishonest employee sends ALL of YOUR CHILD's data into the world for employers and any other nosey person to see.

Are YOU willing to do this to your child. And are YOU so cowardly that YOU will not stand up to this bureaucratic blob when they threaten your child with consequences for NOT taking the tests.

IF you are a parent, then DEFEND YOUR CHILD. To simply acquiesce to this is immoral.

11:34 am April 26, 2012

Melinda wrote:

And we're expected to take these tests seriously...Meanwhile back at the ranch students are losing out on multiple weeks of instruction while they spend 6(3 for ELA, 3 for Math) days taking the tests; then getting 3 days off from school so their teachers can score them. Yikes. Then the teachers are expected to get evaluated on how well their students perform on them. Let's just call it"The Pineapple With No Sleeves Teacher Eval." Yup.

Take the time to look into buying Pearson stock. When you see what they control, you will understand why the poorly proofread test question should get them fired. They are a business who make tests, sell books, provide PD and who knows what else.

6:22 pm June 18, 2012

Little Birdy wrote:

Some people have no idea what goes into developing a test. Passages are read by students to determine how well they comprehend the content of the passage. Questions are created from the passage at varying difficulty levels. Some students (and parents) are able to answer them and some aren't. In the end, every item on a test is number-crunched to make sure that the item is valid, legitimate, and that a reasonable number of students are able to correctly answer it. Statistics are kept to ensure no racial/gender bias in the items. If the numbers don't add up the questions and/or passages are removed from the test. If you don't like the way tests are administered, it is not the fault of the testing companies that produce them. The local/state/federal governments are responsible.

3:31 pm January 23, 2013

Allen Moradian wrote:

Great report nicely worth any thumbs upward. Have any extra fantastic inexpensive ideas?

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